Amid concern among students over this year’s Class XII results assessed through the new On Screen Marking System (OSM), the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Sunday reduced the post-result re-evaluation fee and promised a full refund if the marks increase after the revision.
The move is aimed at reassuring students and ensuring that “no child, for any reason, feels that they have received lower grades than they deserve,” Sanjay Kumar, Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL), said at a press conference on Sunday.
“There is anxiety among our children… We are equally concerned about this because whether it is the Ministry of Education or the Central Board of Secondary Education, the welfare and concerns of all our children are of utmost importance to us,” Kumar said.
Under the revised structure, the fee for obtaining a scanned copy of the assessed answer sheet is reduced $700 l $100 per subject, while the fee for mark checking – which checks for clerical errors such as total answers and unmarked answers – is reduced from $500 l $100. Re-evaluation fees for specific questions are deducted from $100 l $25 per question.
“If for any reason the re-evaluation process reveals that your marks have increased, we will refund you the full amount you paid. We are more concerned about the well-being, well-being and mental state of our children. Money is important, but it is not the priority,” Kumar said.
Dr Jyoti Arora, principal, Mount Abu Public School, Rohini, Delhi, said the fee reduction in the revaluation exercise is a “thoughtful and progressive step” that enhances transparency and student confidence.
Read also:What is the on-screen marking system in the middle of the class for CBSE Class 12 results?
“I was expecting at least 70 marks in physics but I got 55,” said Rahul Kumar, a student from Ghaziabad who appeared in the Class XII board exams this year. “I will apply for re-evaluation and hope my marks will increase after I point out the errors in the audit.”
Year 12 students can apply for re-evaluation from May 19 to May 22.
Unlike the previous system, where students first sought verification and then waited days to receive scanned copies, the new process begins with students directly applying for the scanned copy of their answer text, which can now be made available within hours as officials said all Class 12 answer books have already been digitized under OSM.
Students can compare the assessed texts with the official marking schemes for each question paper uploaded on the CBSE website, identify discrepancies and report specific objections. A subject matter expert panel will then review these observations and communicate its decision.
“We will simply provide you with a copy of your answer sheet. Once you look at the answer sheet, it will become clear how the correction has been made,” Kumar said, adding that since the texts have already been scanned, there is “no need or any alternative method for further re-scanning”.
The changes follow concerns raised after the Year 12 pass rate fell by 3.19 percentage points to 85.20%, down from 88.39% last year, marking the biggest drop in seven years and the lowest since 2019, when the pass rate was 83.40%. This decline has led some students and teachers to question whether OSM affects grading standards.
OSM “was neither a new concept nor the first time it had been implemented,” Kumar said. CBSE first piloted the system in 2014, assessing key Class 10 subjects in most districts and only two Class 12 subjects – Basic English and Economics – in the Delhi region. The initiative was later scaled back due to infrastructure and connectivity limitations before being revived this year following widespread technology and software upgrades and teacher training.
According to CBSE Chairman Rahul Singh, nearly 300,000 teachers have logged on to the CBSE training portal, while 77,000 teachers have participated in the assessment.
“The teachers only evaluated each transcript in OSM and AI was not used in evaluating the answer scripts,” Singh said.
Under the OSM, answer scripts were first sent to the regional CBSE offices, scanned and uploaded to a secure digital portal. Teachers assessed them on computer screens, digitally entering marks and annotated answers online, while totals were calculated automatically to eliminate human error.
Kumar said the system offered flexibility and objectivity by allowing answer scripts from one region to be evaluated elsewhere, unlike the previous region-bound manual checking system. He added that the OSM system is already being used by institutions such as Delhi University, University of Mumbai, Visvesvaraya Technological University, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, and international boards including Cambridge International Assessment of Education and International Baccalaureate.
CBSE officials also admitted there were initial technical glitches, including login issues, system overload and survey deficiencies. A total of 68,018 answer books were re-scanned due to poor image quality.
About 13,583 answer books had to be manually scanned as repeated scanning failed to produce legible copies, Kumar said. “No matter how many times we scanned it, there was some unreadability because the ink used was too light in color,” he said.
